Non-human Drongo

The jasmine's a-blooming and I saw my first non-human drongo today which means that it must well and truly be spring. Being a drongo, it's probably migrating in the opposite direction to more conventional birds. Like from a Melbourne winter to a Darwin summer or something equally as stupid. It was sitting on the wire above the roadside -tho they also love hanging about in the she-oaks with Langley Longlegs- and I was reminded that words such as drongo (meaning idiot, not to be confused with Galah) will soon be banned from Parliament. Now parliamentary debate is one of the few examples where drongo is still used on a daily basis, mostly to refer to the opposite member. So it will be up to all little aussie battlers to keep such words alive in sentences like, “How many of you drongos voted for John Howard?” But it will be tough competition with new words coming into the lexicon all the time, inspired by our loathsome pollies.

For example, ‘Beasley’ and ‘Ruddock’ have become common curse words in my household and are also used to describe those stinkier bodily functions one has from time to time. In a sentence: “Don’t go in there, I just dropped a Ruddock”.

Which leaves the poor drongo where exactly? Up the dunny without a paddle I suppose. Back to the flower arranging now.